[Audio Guide]
When two frames of film are superimposed, they produce a new composition with fresh colors and meanings that can be both humorous and profound. This series features images shot covertly by the photographer Boris Mikhailov in Ukraine under Communist Soviet rule in the late 1960s and 1970s. He later developed them using the dual-exposure technique he adopted after relocating to the West. Titled Yesterday’s Sandwich, the series nostalgically reflects on an era defined by two conflicting global paradigms. The museum’s collection contains three works from this series. This one layers an old letter from a former lover over an image of elderly women in swimsuits. This juxtaposition strikingly illustrates the transience of time in a distinctively humor-tinged manner. An advocate of placing human experience above compositional aesthetics, Mikhailov consistently portrayed reality from an objective standpoint, enriched with a warm, perceptive grasp of human nature.
